Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, will be a candidate for the presidency of Brazil in October 2026, announced this Friday the president of the Liberal Party (PL), Valdemar Costa Neto.
Flávio's selection as a candidate has the approval of his father, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for a coup d'état, as assured by the PL leader. "Confirmed. We are together," Costa Neto commented in statements to Poder 360.
Flávio Bolsonaro, 44, is the eldest son of the Brazilian far-right leader, a lawyer by profession, and has held a seat in the Senate since 2019. In the October 2026 elections, he will face the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to aspire to a four-year term that will begin in January 2027.
His selection as a candidate clears up doubts that had arisen on the right after his father's political disqualification for committing electoral crimes in 2022, and his subsequent prison sentence for leading a coup d'état to try to retain power after his defeat in that year's elections.
Flávio is a staunch defender of a bill that proposes to amnesty those involved in the coup d'état, including his father, a bill that has been stalled in the Legislature for months due to a lack of political support.
Flávio told me that our captain (Jair Bolsonaro) ratified his candidacy. Bolsonaro spoke, it is settled.
